SEIU’s Andy Stern gets a new job as a corporate insider…

SIGA Technologies, Inc. (SIGA 6.76, -0.04, -0.59%) , a company specializing in the development of pharmaceutical agents to combat bio-warfare pathogens, announced today that Andy Stern, labor leader and prominent advocate for reform, joined SIGA’s board of directors. Mr. Stern is the former president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the largest and fastest-growing healthcare union in North America.

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“Andy is a strong leader and a great addition to our Board of Directors. His insight, experience, and leadership, particularly his understanding of how our federal government works, will complement the skill sets of our existing board members,” said Dr. Eric Rose, SIGA’s Chief Executive Officer.

Mr. Stern has been cited in numerous publications as being one of the most influential leaders on healthcare and a frequent White House visitor. In 2010, Stern was named a Presidential appointee to the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

Shares of SIGA Technologies have approached the eight dollar level of late, rebounding nicely from the low of under five dollars about six months ago. The SIGA stock reached a high of over ten bucks last December in anticipation of a possible awarding of a BARDA contract for the ST-246 smallpox vaccine. The contract did not pan out at the time, although some modifications to the application process in the interest of creating competition were announced around that time.

A $2.8 million contract was awarded to Siga by the Department of Defense in early March, although this one was for ST-669, a broad-spectrum anti-viral.

That’s nothing in comparison to the big BARDA contract that investors of the company are waiting for, but it does have the potential to rake in up to ten million dollars for SIGA when it’s all said and done.